The Powerful Gospel of a Powerful Savior
Notes
Transcript
Handout
The Power of the Gospel
The Power of the Gospel
The folly of the gospel
The folly of the gospel
Romans - the cross = humiliation
Greeks - gods operate above human realm and restrictions
Muslims - it is an offense to say that Jesus was God (unitarian), but esp that He would condescend to suffer and impossible that God could die
2020 Americans - it’s a myth like the rest
Years ago RC Sproul was lecturing on the relationship of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. In the middle of teaching about the demands of the Old Testament being fulfilled in the cross of Christ, he was interrupted by a man shouting, "That's primitive and obscene!" He asked the man to repeat himself while he gathered his thoughts and then replied, "You're right, and I particularly enjoy the two adjectives you used to describe it; primitive and obscene. Certainly there's nothing in human history more obscene than the cross of Christ, for in that moment all of the filthy, ugliness of sin was compacted by imputation onto the back of Jesus of Nazareth. When Christ hung on the cross, in and of Himself, He was the Holy one of Israel; beautiful, but by imputation, once the sin of the world was laid on him, He was the incarnation at that moment of obscenity, but more important for our consideration today is the other adjective the man used, primitive. I said, that's right! You do have very high levels of literary prose and poetry to be found in the Scripture, but on the other hand the basic message is exactly what you're calling it; it's primitive because God cares enough about His fallen people, that at times He lisps, he condescends to speak to us in our lowest state, so that the simplest child, the most primitive savage can understand the gift of eternal life.
The power of the Law & Gospel
The power of the Law & Gospel
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The source of the power
The source of the power
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
The source of the power of both the law and the gospel then is the sovereign authority of God who decreed from the foundation of the world to save lost humanity by gospel means. The efficacy is from the Holy and Righteous nature of Christ Jesus in life and death. The sure promise is proven in the 3rd day resurretion, and its application to us lies in the freedom and power of the Spirit to awaken, convince, convict, enable and renew our souls in the experience we call conversion or regeneration.
Yes, my friends, there IS power in the blood, and the proclamation of it!
The ongoing power
The ongoing power
Some of you are perishing
Some of you are perishing
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
...and though we fool ourselves, we cannot either by means of miraculous medical technology; days are granted or not by the One, True, Living, and Sovereign God
EMTs and ER personnel can intubate, perform chest compressions, use a defibrillator, give injections of epinephrine or adrenaline in dramatic fashion, but at some point they still have to “call it” because none of us has ever achieved what Mary Shelley wrote about in 1818 about Dr. Victor Frankenstein
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
So… every step taken outside unity with Christ is necessarily a step toward inevitable death and Hell.
Some of us are being saved
Some of us are being saved
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
Doesn’t that just perfectly add up to the gospel being the power of God to those of us who are being saved?
The Foolishness of the Gospel (and Gospel preachers) v26-29
The Foolishness of the Gospel (and Gospel preachers) v26-29
This is no excuse for preachers of the gospel to behave foolishly in preaching or pastoring.
This is no excuse for preachers of the gospel to take lightly their duty that is theirs to prepare and as much as is possible improve their craft; building upon the gifts given him by God.
This is no excuse for preachers of the gospel to abdicate their role to seek after and dispense GODLY wisdom rather than locally acceptable folk religion and human traditions.
This is no excuse for preachers of the gospel to make excuse for the way they are, the way they preach, or especially for how little they know.
This is no excuse for preachers of the gospel to rely wether implicitly or explicitly on their own abilities, education, delivery, or reputation.
I humbly ask you to hold me to these standards, as well as anyone you ever see or hear as a preacher of the gospel. Churches of the world have great messengers. The true churches of Jesus have THE great message.
Because of H I M ! v30-31
Because of H I M ! v30-31
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
Read ‘The Beatitudes’
Mat 5:
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
God help us today to hear, to truly believe, and to comply with the end of our text. Let our boast now and forever only be in Christ, but let it be loud and often.